1. Field of the Invention
An electrical connector is disclosed including an open-topped metal housing having at least one side wall and a pair of end walls cooperating to define a chamber, an inverted generally U-shaped resilient contact having a pair of leg portions extending downwardly within said chamber, and a bridging portion arranged adjacent the top of the housing, support means carried by said side wall for supporting said bridging portion of said resilient contact, connecting means connecting a first leg of said resilient contact against lateral displacement relative to a first one of said end walls, whereby the other second contact leg is biased outwardly toward bus bar means adjacent the other housing end wall, and stop means carried by said side wall for limiting the extent of displacement of said second contact leg toward said first contact leg when a conductor is inserted between said bus bar means and said second contact leg. The housing may be formed from a conductive metal, such as copper. The tip of the second contact leg may be bifurcated to effect an improved connection between the conductor and the bus bar.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
Electrical connector devices including resilient contacts for biasing a conductor into electrical engagement with a bus bar are well known in the patented prior art, as shown by the U.S. patents to Delarue, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,879,204; Beege, et al., U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,938,484 and 6,261,120; Beege, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,280,233; and Despang U.S. Pat. No. 6,350,162, and the German patents Nos. DE 197 376 739 A1, DE 42 31 244 A1, DE 35 20 826 A1, DE 24 40 825 A1, DE 295 00614 A1, DE 81 36 054 U1, DE 69 41 200 U1, and WO 02/13 319 A1.
Against the background of this state of the art, there is a need for a connecting device with resilient contact that can be handed in a particularly simple manner, that can be produced at a reasonable cost and that can be employed in many different ways; this should necessitate the minimum possible requirement for adaptation of the equipment such as terminal blocks or printed circuit boards that will receive the connecting device.
Solving this problem is the purpose of this invention.
Accordingly, a primary object of the invention is to provide an electrical connector including an open-topped metal housing having at least one side wall and a pair of end walls cooperating to define a chamber, an inverted generally U-shaped resilient contact having first and second leg portions extending downwardly within said chamber, and a bridging portion arranged adjacent the top of the housing, support means carried by said side wall for supporting said contact bridging portion, connecting means connecting said first contact leg against lateral displacement relative to a first one of said end walls, whereby the second contact leg is biased outwardly toward bus bar means adjacent the other housing end wall, and stop means carried by said side wall for limiting the extent of displacement of said second contact leg toward said first contact leg when a conductor is inserted between said bus bar means and said second contact leg.
According to a more specific object of the invention, the metal housing is contained in the cavity of a terminal block formed of a synthetic plastic electrical insulating material, said block containing a first opening from introducing the bare end of an insulated conductor between the resilient contact second leg and the bus bar means, and a second opening for introducing an operating tool such as the tip of a screwdriver into the chamber to release the second contact leg from the conductor, thereby to permit removal of the conductor from the cavity of the terminal block.
According to a more specific object of the invention, the first contact leg is attached to the inside of the first side wall of the metal housing and that it rests segmentally directly on the inside of the side wall, that the bridging section of the resilient contact rests at least on a support molded directly upon the metal housing, a projection being provided on the inside of one of the side walls of the metal housing to serve as a stop for the deflection of the clamping leg. It is also conceivable that the metal housing consists of an electrically conductive metal, such as copper, and assumes a current-conducting function or that the bus bar and the metal housing be made in one piece from conducting material.
A further object of the invention is to provide a resilient contact in which the tip of the second contact leg is bifurcated, thereby to more accurately and positively position and bias one or more conductors into engagement with the stationary bus bar.
The present invention provides a particularly reasonably priced connecting device consisting of a few parts with a resilient contact that is fixed in the metal housing so that it cannot be extracted exclusively by means of function elements made directly on the metal housing where all forces involved in the activation are absorbed by the metal housing, which can be inserted in a terminal block housing as a whole or as a preassembled unit or which can be mounted on a printed circuit board. In this way, it is merely necessary, for example, in a terminal block, to provide a recess adapted to the external geometry, but one does not need any bridges or the like on the terminal housing or a conductor lath that assume special functions, for example, an extraction safety for the resilient contact or the function of a stop. Instead, these functions are taken care of by the metal resilient contact.